For those complaining about Silas offense look at this For those complaining about certain players getting minutes … that’s more on Stone (EG / Nix) For those who think if he doesn’t win a certain amount of games - when clearly Stone and Tilman want a chance at top 4 pick … he’s in no danger of losing his job as long as players continue to develop and losses are competitive
Yeah that is actually one of his more bizarre things. KPJ is a poor FT shooter so he's a bad choice for that reason. He also gets a ton of shots up during the normal course of a game so it's not like he needs this extra shot to somehow get a rhythm. It makes no sense.
Where did that stat line come from? Not familiar with that ranking - would like to know more though. Half of our shots come from 3 dribbles in isolation to get a shot - not sure how coaching impacts "everyone get out of the way" offense The EG/Nix thing is completely puzzling - if Silas legit thinks those guys need playing time he is smoking crack...but if it's a Stone thing to make us bad, okay I can see it...obviously they can't advertise that but I feel like it's important context we should know. Certainly putting in G league version of Ben Simmons without the defense is a good way to tank without actually tanking. EGo has fallen several notches at this point and is a much worse defender and facilitator than he has been in the past. Personally I was concerned about the lack of offensive play calling to start the season but to his credit, I have seen noticeable improvements there....but it can't be understated how bad our start to the season was(again). I think Silas is probably a decent guy and I don't doubt he can coach a heliocentric offense like what you see with Luka and Harden but my problem has been - how is he going to coach when he doesn't have the personnel to run that type of offense? There is that old saying - everything looks like a nail to a hammer and when I see Silas using KPJ as that Harden/Luka type of facilitator, I think Silas has fallen prey to that trap - using everyone in the only way he knows how rather than adapting his style to suit the team he has. To me this is where his age is a problem because he knows one way to solve a problem successfully that was entirely dependent on a context that doesn't exist on this team. He has to be willing to throw that approach out the door(even though it worked beautifully in Dallas) to figure out a solution that works for this team. That's what ultimately made a guy like Pops successful because he had no problems going from the team that took the fewest 3s(remember the DeRozan/Aldridge/Gasol/Gay era?) to one of the teams that took the most when his personnel changed.
This myth has been dispelled countless times. The Rockets only run about 8.5 isolation possessions per game.
What classifies as an isolation possession in that statistical model though? I mean I see a team running through the motions of a play for sure and occasionally the picks are hard enough that there are some switches but I more frequently see those same possessions ending with a player trying to create offense one on one against a mostly set defense. I don't necessarily see a lot of action that comes from the play aside from maybe some switches on who is guarding whom. ...and its not just me either - last year I was listening to some scouts in a podcast ranking NBA coaches and Silas fell into the "rolled a ball out there and let them play" categorization. I'm watching these games and while it has undoubtedly got better in the last 5-8 games, I think there is something flawed in a statical model that warrants a deeper understanding if it's reporting only 8 posesions a game.
This isn't my analysis, but it mirrors my own findings in terms of shot selection. The fact that this Rockets team is #4 in the entire league in shot selection when their major contributors are so young portends good things for the future. Eventually these kids will start shooting better and when that happens, they are going to win on a regular basis. Green has made rapid improvement this year in shot selection, he's getting those mid range shots at will and knocking them down at a good clip. Porter gets a lot of those looks too, but he will often pass them up to get to the rim and take a contested shot instead .... but there's hope that he starts to recognize those easy shots.
They aren't coming down in a 1-4 flat and letting Harden go to work .... Almost every possession begins with some screen action, pick & roll or a dribble handoff coming around a screen and quite often both in the same possession. Just because the guard finishes the sequence doesn't mean it's "Isolation". Jalen in particular is really good at resetting that action after the first screen and going back to the same screen, it really puts defenders in a bind & as a result he is getting great shots from the mid range. The only real knock I have on KPJ is that he often forces difficult shots at the rim instead of taking bunnies from the mid range.
Stone hedged his bet and got both sides covered since he has spoke about doing right by players which would also include other personnel, so he could extend Silas and let him ride out the rebuild into the next phase of the core coming of age and being contenders or just let Silas coach out his deal and move on to the next coach Either way he is in the clear unless his sponsor decides to hit him with a Stone Cold stunner and find his replacement if the core doesn't pan out as expected
What is the definition of an isolation play in this stat? I tried to find by googling but could not find anything. Edit: a lot of shots taken by kpj, green and ego looks isolation. Do Sengun post-ups count as isolations?
Stats I see has the rockets at 7th in isolation plays per game, and dead last or first in unassisted scoring. We have the least assists in the nba. I may be looking at something wrong, but if true this goes with the eye test. Our offense is iso heavy PnR heavy and not fun to watch. PnR heavy I wouldn’t mind but our decision making isn’t great and there’s no creativity.
There are those that believe that Porter isn't a good fit as a PG. So happens he was our best shooter last night though. The weave of one PnR after another does seem excessive and predictable.
Silas is a perfect coach for tanking. If we want to continue tanking 16626262 more years, extending his contract makes sense. Otherwise, fire him now...
